Christine Whitehead | The Blog Also Rises

Hemingway’s Letters: Just a few more comments

‘‘It’s such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you’ve done something.’ Cambridge’s new collection of correspondence finds a writer generous to all, at the top of his game.

I have had two other posts on the letters so don’t want to over do it. Still, I can’t overemphasize the value in reading a bit about it to know Hemingway personally. This article summarizes why you should read some of them. They are funny, vulnerable, disclosing. Again, He specifically did not want them published. Those were his explicit instructions. Mary Hemingway, controller of his estate legally, went against that mandate. I don’t like that but I have to admit to loving his letters and what they reveal. Read and enjoy. Best, Christine

Movie to be made of “Across the River and Into the Woods”

Plierce Brosnan will bring a little-known Ernest Hemingway novel to the screen, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

EH2841P nd. Ernest Hemingway and Adriana Ivancich with stuffed lion. Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba. Copyright unknown in the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. — EH2841P nd.
Ernest Hemingway and Adriana Ivancich with stuffed lion. Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba. Copyright unknown in the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Across the River and Into the Woods was one of Hemingway’s poorly received books. It was written while Hemingway was infatuated with Adriana Ivancich who was the prototype for Renata. It still sold decently and at one point, there was talk of a movie with a very young Sophia Loren as Renata and Gary Cooper as the Colonel. I liked the book but did not find Renata to be an interesting character or sufficient to draw the intense attention of the Colonel who clearly was partially based on Hemingway himself. Should be interesting.

More about Hemingway’s Letters

For readers of Ernest Hemingway, it can be tempting to mix the iconic writer’s fictional characters with the public persona of the writer himself. He never kept a journal and apparently integrated many of his personal experiences into his art.

More of Hemingway’s letters are being published and they are so revealing and fun. For example, Hemingway is known as being a bit of a bully to his wives yet some of the letters show great sensitivities to Martha Gellhorn and admiration and support for her career as a writer. Please take a look when you have time.

Best, Christine

EH5598P 1940 Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in Sun Valley, Idaho, 1940. Photographer unknown in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. — EH5598P 1940
Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in Sun Valley, Idaho, 1940. Photographer unknown in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Casting the Big Novels: Me as Casting Director

Now, who should play the great parts that Hem has provided for us? My selections in bold:

The Sun Also Rises: (1957)

Tyrone Power (Jake Gyllenhall) as Jake Barnes
Ava Gardner (Blake Lively) Brett Ashley
Mel Ferrer (Matt Damon) as Robert Cohn
Errol Flynn (Jude Law) as Mike Campbell

A Farewell to Arms: (1932)

Helen Hayes (Angelina Jolie) as Catherine
Angelina as Catherine
Gary Cooper (Clive Owen) as Frederic

A Farewell to Arms (1957)

Jennifer Jones as Catherine (Hemingway dismayed that she was 40. Catherine was supposed to be in her twenties.)
Rock Hudson as Frederic

A Farewell to Arms (In Love and War) (1996)

Sandra Bullock as Catherine
Chris O’Donnell as Frederic

For Whom the Bell Tolls: (1943)

Ingrid Bergman (Rooney Mara) as Maria
Gary Cooper (Ben Affleck) as Robert Jordan

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Gregory Peck (Ed Harris) as Harry
Susan Hayward (Sharon Stone) as Helen
Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) as Cynthia
Kate Beckinsale

The Old Man and the Sea ( 1958)

Spencer Tracy ( Javier Bardem) as Santiago

SO HOW DID I DO?

When More Is . . . More

Purple is not only highly coloured prose,” he wrote. “It is the world written up, intensified and made pleasurably palpable, not only to suggest the impetuous abundance of Creation, but also to add to it by showing – showing off – the expansive power of the mind itself … When the deep purple blooms, you are looking at a dimension, not a posy.”

On praise of purple prose — In praise of purple prose

This is an interesting article in praise of “purple prose,” the opposite of minimalist prose favored by Hemingway. It does not pan that prose but argues that there is a place for “more.” nice commentary. Best, Christine

Restoring the Finca Vigia outside Havana : Work to Begin

#HemingwayFincavigia

#Hemingwaycuba

Havana, Cuba (CNN)Ernest Hemingway’s home near Havana is expected to soon receive an infusion of badly needed building supplies from the United States.

Before it is too late, actual collaboration between the U.S. and Cuba is happening regarding the restoration of Hemingway’s beloved Cuban home. He lived there for about twenty years. As mentioned in previous posts, he and Mary left many papers and mementos when they were not allowed to return. Apparently, there remain many writings/notes of historical and literary interest even after Mary was permitted to remove some of them post-Hemingway’s death.

The opportunity to write in Hemingway’s Key West Studio

Anybody can tour the Spanish colonial estate in Key West, Florida, where Ernest Hemingway lived in the 1930s. Now a new contest is offering one lucky and talented writer a chance to work in the studio where Hemingway wrote.

Most of us can’t be a Hemingway even if surrounded by his aura and his home. Still, it has to inspiring. Enter the contest and maybe you can be the one to sit in his chair and banish any thought of writer’s block. Click above link for details.

This is not the Key West studio but the writer at work anyway.

New Finds at the Finca in Cuba

It’s been a year since the U.S. and Cuba began normalizing relations. Tourism, business and cultural exchanges are booming. And there is another curious benefactor of those warmer ties — Ernest Hemingway, or at least, his legacy.

please read the above article about the on-going restoration efforts on the Finca and some of the finds made when access was allowed to various areas of the property. Now that Cuba is more open, we can hope for much preservation.

Hemingway, Paris, and Christmas

I have been enjoying the nostalgic and beautifully written short pieces in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway; especially Hemingway’s 1923 essay for the Toronto Star, “Christmas on the Roof of the World.” In this exuberant essay, which was written when Ernest was 24 years old, all of the wonder of Christmas and travel are expressed beginning with Christmas morning in Switzerland. Hemingway’s joy is undeniable as he describes Christmas day with Hadley and Chink:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. The above is a link to an article in The Hemingway Project about early short stories written by Hemingway. Enjoy. Thank you for reading this Blog and being interested in Ernest Hemingway.

Love, Christine

Biopic Movie of Max Perkins, Hemingway’s editor is a contender

BERLIN • Genius, a star-studded biopic about fabled editor Max Perkins, who published some of America’s most famous writers, is among the five movies in the first slate of contenders announced last Friday for the Berlin International Film Festival next year.

Starring Colin Firth, Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, the film about the editor who launched the careers of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe will have its world premiere at the Berlinale, Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the year that runs from Feb 11 to 21.

I have eagerly awaited this movie since I heard about it. I love Colin Firth and Max Perkins deserves his own glory. The role of the editor was very different in the 20’s-50’s with huge nurturing of egos and careers. How Perkins managed his stable of temperamental geniuses is beyond imagination. It should get to the US in early 2016.